Did you know that 30% of NAE's budget comes from private philanthropy?
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Your gift to the National Academy of Engineering matters. Private support helps the NAE continue its work to promote the public’s understanding of engineering, encourage students to pursue an engineering education, and contribute to debate and action on critical national and global issues.
The initiatives highlighted below would not be possible without your contributions. Thank you.
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NAE Independent Fund
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Your unrestricted gift to the Independent Fund enables the NAE to initiate projects that are vital to our nation’s future but lack federal sponsorship. As our one truly discretionary resource, the NAE Independent Fund supplies the seed money to launch and sustain new initiatives and provides for the continuity of our operations. We are grateful for the following projects that would not be possible without our donors’ unrestricted contributions.
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Grand Challenges for Engineering
 In 2008, the NAE convened a committee of leading technical thinkers to outline the Grand Challenges for Engineering for a new generation. The Challenges cover topics ranging from preventing nuclear terror to enhancing virtual reality to making solar energy economical. Unrestricted gifts were used in the early planning and implementation of this project, and have allowed for continued NAE engagement.
Since the report’s release, a Grand Challenges Scholars Program, a Grand Challenges K-12 Partners Program, and the Summit Series on Grand Challenges have self-organized to get to work on solving these problems facing our society.
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Engineer of 2020
Engineer of 2020 is a two-phase vision-casting initiative meant to anti cipate the engineering environment of the future, and prepare a new generation to meet the challenges they will face. The project encourages educators in engineering to be open to new teaching and training approaches that will allow engineers to become leaders in government and nonprofit sectors while maintaining business influence.
Independent funds sustained the early planning and provided supplementary funding for Engineer of 2020. To date, this is one of the most successful and widely disseminated projects conducted by the NAE.
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Frontiers of Engineering
The Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) program brings together outstanding young engineers (ages 30-45) from companies, universities and government to discuss leading-edge research in technology. The program provides these engineers with an opportunity to bridge traditional disciplines in order to transfer techniques and approaches across fields and stimulate innovative capacity.
Since its inception in 1995, the program has brought together 3,500 young engineers to exchange ideas across the U.S. and around the world in places like Germany, China, Japan, India and the EU. The program also serves to promote career development and create a network of future engineering leaders to ensure the continuing vitality of the engineering profession.
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NAE Endowment
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Gifts to the NAE Endowment are an investment in the NAE’s future, and a way to provide enduring financial support to the Academy. Investment income earned from endowments can be used in much the same way as our unrestricted funds; to provide sounds policy recommendations, improve engineering education, and enhance the public’s understanding of engineering.
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Programs
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Your gift can also provide direct support for a specific program of your choice. The programs listed below are currently in need of private funding.
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EngineerGirl!
Ten years ago, NAE launched EngineerGirl! (EG!), a website aimed to encourage middle school-aged girls to consider engineering as a profession, by showing them the positive impact engineers have on society. The website now averages 12,000 unique users per month, and is the go-to resource for students, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and others with an interest in learning about engineering careers and various engineering disciplines.
Also, an annual contest invites students in various age categories (grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12) to submit an essay describing using engineering to solve a specific problem. During the contest, the average number of users per month is 16,000. The 2012 topic for the Essay Contest is how engineers are involved in the process of making foods, from planting and harvesting to safely manufacturing, packaging and transporting foods. Thanks to the support of Lockheed Martin, EG! is being revitalized to incorporate new media and make the site more effective.
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Public Understanding of Engineering
NAE's Public Understanding of Engineering program seeks to highlight the critical roles played by engineers and the technologies they create.
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| Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE)
The Frontiers of Engineering Education brings together engineering educators to encourage dialogue among faculty to promote innovative engineering education. This series of symposia focuses on emerging leaders in the field of engineering education, and aims to equip them with the capacity to broaden their collaboration and incorporate innovative teaching methods into their curriculum. Ultimately, this program has the potential to enhance the recruitment of young people to the engineering profession through improvements to engineering education, and also to raise the visibility of the field and emerging leaders within it.
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To learn more about these and other programs at the NAE made possible by private support, please view our Impact of Philanthropy brochure.
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